What More Do We Want For Soccer?

FOOTBALL is the number one sport in the universe and for that matter topping all sport codes in our country and therefore, becomes a national concern.

Football has a long history in this country dating back before Independence, with lots of changes in the game and administration. Today Fifa is so much involved in this beautiful game in our country with one clear purpose, to help develop our game.This can clearly be seen with the construction of the new Soccer House, Fifa’s involvement to assist NFA to get their house in order through the 2006 NFA Congress and the recent announcement of the construction of the technical house and replacement of the independence stadium pitch with artificial turf and many more.Despite all these efforts our success in this game is far from being achieved and the big question remains “What more do we want?” There are few aspects one can comment on to see where our game is heading.Let me start with our national teams, the Brave Warriors, the Brave Gladiators, the U/23, the U/20 and the U/17 youth teams.Since Burkina Faso 1998, we struggle to qualify for Africa Cup of Nations at least for a second time.The current log standing of Namibia for Ghana 2008 makes me uncertain as to whether we will make it or not.Namibia is currently leading the group from the bottom, they played three matches, won one, lost two, with three points so far.It means, for Namibia to qualify, they need to win all remaining three matches, two at home and one away.They managed so far to score four goals and concede five, which is the highest in the group.The biggest concern is since we have a very weak away record by losing both the two away matches against DRC and Libya, are we going to make it against Ethiopia which we won narrowly by 1-0 at home? I believe that Namibia is equipped with enough professional players and talented local players to take us to Ghana, but are they competent enough to rescue Namibia from this situation in group 10? There is a lack of consistency from some of our professional players when they play for the Brave Warriors compared to when they play for their clubs.The Brave Gladiators did us proud when they reached the Cosafa women’s final to give us some hope, but all of a sudden things changed for the worse.They exited from the Olympic qualifier games when they drew 3-all at home against DRC and lost 4-2 (5-7 aggregate) in DRC.Now, one wonders what happens in such a sort period of time between the Cosafa Cup Final and the Olympic qualifier.Again, lack of consistency.The other team booted out of a qualifier match is the U/23, they lost 1-0 away against their South African counterparts and drew 1-all (2-1 aggregate) at home for a Olympic qualifier match last year.Now it became simply a closed chapter and we had to prepare the U/20’s for 2012 Olympic qualifiers.The Cosafa U/20 tournament in South Africa last year December was another setback in Namibian Football.Instead of sending the U/20’s, the U/17’s represented the country at the mini tournament.They lost 3-1 against South Africa and lost their second match 1-0 against Zimbabwe which cost them an early flight back home.If I can summarise the results of these teams, we lost all our away matches since last year including the matches Brave Warriors had played against Botswana 1-0 and Zimbabwe 3-2.We also lost our first match in 2006 Cosafa Cup against Seychelles (1-1) 2-4 on penalties.For 2007 Cosafa Cup we are drawn in Group C with Angola, Lesotho and Botswana as the hosts.Since these matches are away, do we have hope since there is no improvement with our away record? Will history as usual repeat itself? The other aspect of this game which needs thorough attention is the standard of local football.Nowadays you cannot distinguish between a Premier League team and a first or a second division team when it comes to performance.No wonder that a first division side Mighty Gunners advanced to the semi-finals of the MTC NFA Cup defeating Premier League giants and hopefully make history to be the first lower division team to win the biggest cup in Namibia.The Namibian Football Association strategy to reduce the teams to 12 in all leagues to promote competition is certainly only bearing fruit to some clubs, more especially those who got sponsorships, but one ask themselves sometimes, what about those who got lucrative sponsorships like Blue Waters from (APS) African Personal Services for a tune of N$1 million and are faced with relegation? One wonders, how did the players benefit from these sponsorships? Do the players understand the game on and off the field? Do they believe themselves that they can reach the stars? Do they realise that we as supporters also want to see the Drogbas, the Essiens and the Etos here? Honestly speaking, today in Namibia, who do you want to meet? A Namibian musician like Gazza or a Namibian footballer? Footballers must realise that however they portray themselves on and off the field determines their destiny.Football became an expensive sport and without funds you can’t have a successful team, therefore our corporate world must realise that footballers, administrators and supporters rely on them to reach success as they rely on them to have successful business.This is a two-way street or a give and take situation, you don’t lose anything.One wonders where did our sports-loving business people disappear? The other concern is how many coaches are qualified to coach a Premier League team in this country.Other will perhaps disagree and say experience counts.You need to play the game to understand it.Yes experience counts, but did you know that the current South African coach Carlos Albertos Pereira was not a professional player, yet he is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in the world of football.If you haven’t played the game try to join coaching courses or clinics where available, because we need to see a competitive Premier League.Stop this unnecessary hiring and firing of coaches, season in and out.Regarding the National team’s poor performances and the standard of our local league, there is one aspect that goes hand in hand with the two to be successful and that is development of the game.How effective are our current development programmes? Do they meet the necessary standards to change our game? The long-awaited Technical Director, Seth Boois, has been appointed to spearhead the development of the game.He started with coaching courses, but is there any follow-up on these coaches to see progress? At club level, few clubs commit themselves to development programmes.No wonder that the national coaches struggle with the football basics of some players.It’s high time clubs has to realise that they have to sustain themselves from their development programmes and groom players to their senior sides to keep them in competition.At regional level, the Namibian Newspaper Cup is the saviour for the U/20s, thanks to the paper which realises this national concern.Apart from the Namibian Newspaper Cup there are hardly any development programmes in the regions.Therefore, I will suggest that we have different regional annual cup competitions for the U/15, U/17 and U/23 like the Namibian Newspaper Cup for the U/20s, which achieves such a huge popularity.Through these programmes, players can easily be promoted each year and national coaches can easily identify talent for the National Teams and keep an eye on players’ progress each year.I believe the regions are capable to host these tournaments.2010 is not far from now, we only have three more years to go.We want to qualify for Ghana 2008 to build our confidence for 2010 in Angola and hopefully be a surprise package for Fifa’s World Cup in South Africa.If Angola, whom we regularly play in the Cosafa Cup had done it, why not Namibia? The current sponsorship of the Namibian Football Association through the consortium comprising of MTC, FNB and Namibian Breweries Ltd had plough a huge amount of N$8 million into the game, that’s why our league matches progress well so far, but there is definitively a national concern about the status of our football internationally.There is a clear indication that something is wrong internally.No wonder Mr Jerome Champagne had discovered loopholes in our constitution and suggested for a constitutional reform to accommodate more representation from other members like a referee committee, women’s football committee and coaches association for transparency in the game.Finally we have got what it takes and can be a force to be reckoned within African football, but if we can do anything constructive for this game right now, we should do it.Beatus Tsuob Via e-mailToday Fifa is so much involved in this beautiful game in our country with one clear purpose, to help develop our game.This can clearly be seen with the construction of the new Soccer House, Fifa’s involvement to assist NFA to get their house in order through the 2006 NFA Congress and the recent announcement of the construction of the technical house and replacement of the independence stadium pitch with artificial turf and many more.Despite all these efforts our success in this game is far from being achieved and the big question remains “What more do we want?” There are few aspects one can comment on to see where our game is heading.Let me start with our national teams, the Brave Warriors, the Brave Gladiators, the U/23, the U/20 and the U/17 youth teams.Since Burkina Faso 1998, we struggle to qualify for Africa Cup of Nations at least for a second time.The current log standing of Namibia for Ghana 2008 makes me uncertain as to whether we will make it or not.Namibia is currently leading the group from the bottom, they played three matches, won one, lost two, with three points so far.It means, for Namibia to qualify, they need to win all remaining three matches, two at home and one away.They managed so far to score four goals and concede five, which is the highest in the group.The biggest concern is since we have a very weak away record by losing both the two away matches against DRC and Libya, are we going to make it against Ethiopia which we won narrowly by 1-0 at home? I believe that Namibia is equipped with enough professional players and talented local players to take us to Ghana, but are they competent enough to rescue Namibia from this situation in group 10? There is a lack of consistency from some of our professional players when they play for the Brave Warriors compared to when they play for their clubs.The Brave Gladiators did us proud when they reached the Cosafa women’s final to give us some hope, but all of a sudden things changed for the worse.They exited from the Olympic qualifier games when they drew 3-all at home against DRC and lost 4-2 (5-7 aggregate) in DRC.Now, one wonders what happens in such a sort period of time between the Cosafa Cup Final and the Olympic qualifier.Again, lack of consistency.The other team booted out of a qualifier match is the U/23, they lost 1-0 away against their South African counterparts and drew 1-all (2-1 aggregate) at home for a Olympic qualifier match last year.Now it became simply a closed chapter and we had to prepare the U/20’s for 2012 Olympic qualifiers.The Cosafa U/20 tournament in South Africa last year December was another setback in Namibian Football.Instead of sending the U/20’s, the U/17’s represented the country at the mini tournament.They lost 3-1 against South Africa and lost their second match 1-0 against Zimbabwe which cost them an early flight back home.If I can summarise the results of these teams, we lost all our away matches since last year including the matches Brave Warriors had played against Botswana 1-0 and Zimbabwe 3-2.We also lost our first match in 2006 Cosafa Cup against Seychelles (1-1) 2-4 on penalties.For 2007 Cosafa Cup we are drawn in Group C with Angola, Lesotho and Botswana as the hosts.Since these matches are away, do we have hope since there is no improvement with our away record? Will history as usual repeat itself? The other aspect of this game which needs thorough attention is the standard of local football.Nowadays you cannot distinguish between a Premier League team and a first or a second division team when it comes to performance.No wonder that a first division side Mighty Gunners advanced to the semi-finals of the MTC NFA Cup defeating Premier League giants and hopefully make history to be the first lower division team to win the biggest cup in Namibia.The Namibian Football Association strategy to reduce the teams to 12 in all leagues to promote competition is certainly only bearing fruit to some clubs, more especially those who got sponsorships, but one ask themselves sometimes, what about those who got lucrative sponsorships like Blue Waters from (APS) African Personal Services for a tune of N$1 million and are faced with relegation? One wonders, how did the players benefit from these sponsorships? Do the players understand the game on and off the field? Do they believe themselves that they can reach the stars? Do they realise that we as supporters also want to see the Drogbas, the Essiens and the Etos here? Honestly speaking, today in Namibia, who do you want to meet? A Namibian musician like Gazza or a Namibian footballer? Footballers must realise that however they portray themselves on and off the field determines their destiny.Football became an expensive sport and without funds you can’t have a successful team, therefore our corporate world must realise that footballers, administrators and supporters rely on them to reach success as they rely on them to have successful business.This is a two-way street or a give and take situation, you don’t lose anything.One wonders where did our sports-loving business people disappear? The other concern is how many coaches are qualified to coach a Premier League team in this country.Other will perhaps disagree and say experience counts.You need to play the game to understand it.Yes experience counts, but did you know that the current South African coach Carlos Albertos Pereira was not a professional player, yet he is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in the world of football.If you haven’t played the game try to join coaching courses or clinics where available, because we need to see a competitive Premier League.Stop this unnecessary hiring and firing of coaches, season in and out.Regarding the National team’s poor performances and the standard of our local league, there is one aspect that goes hand in hand with the two to be successful and that is development of the game.How effective are our current development programmes? Do they meet the necessary standards to change our game? The long-awaited Technical Director, Seth Boois, has been appointed to spearhead the development of the game.He started with coaching courses, but is there any follow-up on these coaches to see progress? At club level, few clubs commit themselves to development programmes.No wonder that the national coaches struggle with the football basics of some players.It’s high time clubs has to realise that they have to sustain themselves from their development programmes and groom players to their senior sides to keep them in competition.At regional level, the Namibian Newspaper Cup is the saviour for the U/20s, thanks to the paper which realises this national concern.Apart from the Namibian Newspaper Cup there are hardly any development programmes in the regions.Therefore, I will suggest that we have different regional annual cup competitions for the U/15, U/17 and U/23 like the Namibian Newspaper Cup for the U/20s, which achieves such a huge popularity.Through these programmes, players can easily be promoted each year and national coaches can easily identify talent for the National Teams and keep an eye on players’ progress each year.I believe the regions are capable to host these tournaments.2010 is not far from now, we only have three more years to go.We want to qualify for Ghana 2008 to build our confidence for 2010 in Angola and hopefully be a surprise package for Fifa’s World Cup in South Africa.If Angola, whom we regularly play in the Cosafa Cup had done it, why not Namibia? The current sponsorship of the Namibian Football Association through the consortium comprising of MTC, FNB and Namibian Breweries Ltd had plough a huge amount of N$8 million into the game, that’s why our league matches progress well so far, but there is definitively a national concern about the status of our football internationally.There is a clear indication that something is wrong internally.No wonder Mr Jerome Champagne had discovered loopholes in our constitution and suggested for a constitutional reform to accommodate more representation from other members like a referee committee, women’s football committee and coaches association for transparency in the game.Finally we have got what it takes and can be a force to be reckoned within African football, but if we can do anything constructive for this game right now, we should do it.Beatus Tsuob Via e-mail